theMechanic
10-07-2007, 05:24 PM
This is a huge read, but if you don't have a clue about UT servers or this game and the bad issues us admins face, its worth the time.
In no way am I an expert on the Unreal engine, my only experience is install/running an Americas Army server, which is currently ver 2.8.2 running on the UT2 engine.
I have installed a few UT2004 servers for people, but never admined one myself.
That being said, I have come to expect some things that are either a normal built-in function of the UT engine, or addons that were coded into the game by its devs.
So this is just my opinion and observations so far from running a MoHA server.
SERVER AMINISTRATION
um, where is it?
Epic is not the kind of game maker that "fixes what ain't broke" if you know what i mean.
UT2k4 has a built in web interface as a bare minimum for server admin, remote GUI tools are either provided by the game or community addons.
Lets take a look at the America's Army remote GUI for example.
AASM Installation-
AA's remote tool (aka AASM) is a builtin GUI interface that installs when you install the game. This is best for users and admins in general.
For the GSP, the AASM is also supplied as a .exe and can be installed anywhere on the box. In my case, i put it right in the game install so the game files and admin remote are all under the same FTP and accessible to the user. No My Documents folder needed.
SEE HERE (http://www.netkillershosting.com/images/moha1/aasm2.JPG)
The AASM provides two uses, the first is a cfg builder.
You can create three types of cfg's quite easily, standard, tournament, and LAN.
It even includes settings for CAL and TWL leagues.
SEE HERE (http://www.netkillershosting.com/images/moha1/aasm3.JPG)
The nice thing about this for us is the game does'nt use the My Documents folder, and you can use any number of server cfg's you want.
You can name it what you want, edit how you want manually if needed, and have one for any purpose you desire.
The way they do that is each cfg you make uses a control file, aptly named .Control. So when you want to change a cfg, you login with the remote, stop the server, choose the .Control file you want, start the server. Thats it, don't get any easier.
I won't get into all the settings available, but heres a shot of the tabbed interface.
SEE HERE (http://www.netkillershosting.com/images/moha1/aasm4.JPG) (Theres another 5 tabs you can't see btw)
The second thing the AASM provides is the admin remote tool
AASM Remote-
The AASM Remote allows a ton of options, including:
start/stop/Restart
Changing server cfg's
View PB Screenies
View PB Logs
Edit PB Configuration
Edit Banlists
Join game as player or Admin
SEE HERE (http://www.netkillershosting.com/images/moha1/aasm5.JPG)
No, its not perfect, but it goes miles ahead of what came with MoHA, ain't seen it yet?
SEE HERE (http://www.netkillershosting.com/images/moha1/moha1.JPG)
Final thoughts on this.
The very least we should have is the web interface, a GUI would be a lot better but we recieved squat for admins.
It takes awhile to display whats going on in the server for one, if at all, its failed a few for me. Then when it finally displays server info you have to go find the command you want to enter from the readme, paste it in, execute, and wait. It's junk to me.
SERVER CFG OPTIONS
One nice thing about the cfg's for AA is you can edit them manually if you don't use the cfg builder, and all the options available in the cfg.
MoHA provides nothing, yet, these are things that could have been put in by the devs.
The two most noticable are server logs (There are none in MoHA) and Player Admins. A player admin is a player given admin rights on the server while playing.
Duh, wth is that option?
At the very least, a UT standard, is an admin login and web interface, look at these from UT:
ADMIN SWITCHLEVEL [mapname?game=gametype?mutator=mutator] - Changes the current level to the specified level, game type and mutators
ADMIN [command] - Performs the specified command
ADMINLOGIN [password] - Logs the admininstrator onto the server using the specified password
ADMINLOGOUT - Logs the administrator off the server.
ADMIN SET UWeb.Webserver bEnabled True - Enables the remote admin webserver (after level change)
ADMIN SET UWeb.Webserver bEnabled False - Disables the remote admin webserver (after level change)
KICK [playername] - Kicks the specified player from the server
KICKBAN [playername] - Kicks and bans the specified player from the server using their IP address. To unban the player, edit the server.ini or use the web admin interface
This is not provided in MoHA either, thats two missing INGAME ADMIN options for admins that are a no brainer.
As an example in the differences in server cfgs, heres the two:
MoHA (http://www.netkillershosting.com/images/moha1/moha.ini)
AAO (http://www.netkillershosting.com/images/moha1/moha.ini)
You will notice the sections broken up and each section is designated by the name in brackets [ and ]. These are the controls added by the devs.
Its pitiful when you compare the two. Either Epic didnt supply this info or controls to EA, or the devs didnt have a clue.
WHAT NEEDS FIXED IMMEDIATELY
1. Remove the need to use the My Documents folder for installs:
GSP's cannot or will not mass install this way. This is a total idiotic thing to do.
2. Optimize/recode the CPU usage:
This is a must do as well. Once the player connects, his CPU is already being hammered with the new required Punbuster services PnkBstrA and PnkBstrB.
I can sit in DV and my CPU is 93-95% on an empty server.
Unexceptable by any means.
Once play begins, and PB scans and screenies, it can get real bad real quick.
3. Server Admin Tools:
This is pretty obvious, the need to minimize the screen or quit and login to that thing EA calls an admin remote is just rediculous.
The standard UT interface needs to be the minmum, but preferably in game Player Admins, or even better, BOTH!
4. Assignable IP's:
This should prob be #2 really.
GSP's have IP's that they paid for and are permanently assigned to that particular box. They can't be used elsewhere.
Good GSP's have Resource Allocation tools on their boxes to optimize the CPU's and memory by IP, thats a normal function.
I don't know of many GSP's that are happy with this setup, who the hell wants tons of data running thru the route IP of their box? Thats insane!!
On top of that, clans with servers like to make website tools and such, like server viewers etc. GSP's aren't going to like that either.
5.Player Slots:
This needs fixed. 16 max and a scoreboard that only goes to 12. The magic number here is 24.
16 is pretty small as is 24. 12 is just laffable.
6. Server Logs:
Am i missing sumthing, i cannot find a server log for this game.
I have never ever seen a game that did not generate a logfile.
Theres more that needs fixed of course, but this gives an idea of whats needed asap for this game.
In no way am I an expert on the Unreal engine, my only experience is install/running an Americas Army server, which is currently ver 2.8.2 running on the UT2 engine.
I have installed a few UT2004 servers for people, but never admined one myself.
That being said, I have come to expect some things that are either a normal built-in function of the UT engine, or addons that were coded into the game by its devs.
So this is just my opinion and observations so far from running a MoHA server.
SERVER AMINISTRATION
um, where is it?
Epic is not the kind of game maker that "fixes what ain't broke" if you know what i mean.
UT2k4 has a built in web interface as a bare minimum for server admin, remote GUI tools are either provided by the game or community addons.
Lets take a look at the America's Army remote GUI for example.
AASM Installation-
AA's remote tool (aka AASM) is a builtin GUI interface that installs when you install the game. This is best for users and admins in general.
For the GSP, the AASM is also supplied as a .exe and can be installed anywhere on the box. In my case, i put it right in the game install so the game files and admin remote are all under the same FTP and accessible to the user. No My Documents folder needed.
SEE HERE (http://www.netkillershosting.com/images/moha1/aasm2.JPG)
The AASM provides two uses, the first is a cfg builder.
You can create three types of cfg's quite easily, standard, tournament, and LAN.
It even includes settings for CAL and TWL leagues.
SEE HERE (http://www.netkillershosting.com/images/moha1/aasm3.JPG)
The nice thing about this for us is the game does'nt use the My Documents folder, and you can use any number of server cfg's you want.
You can name it what you want, edit how you want manually if needed, and have one for any purpose you desire.
The way they do that is each cfg you make uses a control file, aptly named .Control. So when you want to change a cfg, you login with the remote, stop the server, choose the .Control file you want, start the server. Thats it, don't get any easier.
I won't get into all the settings available, but heres a shot of the tabbed interface.
SEE HERE (http://www.netkillershosting.com/images/moha1/aasm4.JPG) (Theres another 5 tabs you can't see btw)
The second thing the AASM provides is the admin remote tool
AASM Remote-
The AASM Remote allows a ton of options, including:
start/stop/Restart
Changing server cfg's
View PB Screenies
View PB Logs
Edit PB Configuration
Edit Banlists
Join game as player or Admin
SEE HERE (http://www.netkillershosting.com/images/moha1/aasm5.JPG)
No, its not perfect, but it goes miles ahead of what came with MoHA, ain't seen it yet?
SEE HERE (http://www.netkillershosting.com/images/moha1/moha1.JPG)
Final thoughts on this.
The very least we should have is the web interface, a GUI would be a lot better but we recieved squat for admins.
It takes awhile to display whats going on in the server for one, if at all, its failed a few for me. Then when it finally displays server info you have to go find the command you want to enter from the readme, paste it in, execute, and wait. It's junk to me.
SERVER CFG OPTIONS
One nice thing about the cfg's for AA is you can edit them manually if you don't use the cfg builder, and all the options available in the cfg.
MoHA provides nothing, yet, these are things that could have been put in by the devs.
The two most noticable are server logs (There are none in MoHA) and Player Admins. A player admin is a player given admin rights on the server while playing.
Duh, wth is that option?
At the very least, a UT standard, is an admin login and web interface, look at these from UT:
ADMIN SWITCHLEVEL [mapname?game=gametype?mutator=mutator] - Changes the current level to the specified level, game type and mutators
ADMIN [command] - Performs the specified command
ADMINLOGIN [password] - Logs the admininstrator onto the server using the specified password
ADMINLOGOUT - Logs the administrator off the server.
ADMIN SET UWeb.Webserver bEnabled True - Enables the remote admin webserver (after level change)
ADMIN SET UWeb.Webserver bEnabled False - Disables the remote admin webserver (after level change)
KICK [playername] - Kicks the specified player from the server
KICKBAN [playername] - Kicks and bans the specified player from the server using their IP address. To unban the player, edit the server.ini or use the web admin interface
This is not provided in MoHA either, thats two missing INGAME ADMIN options for admins that are a no brainer.
As an example in the differences in server cfgs, heres the two:
MoHA (http://www.netkillershosting.com/images/moha1/moha.ini)
AAO (http://www.netkillershosting.com/images/moha1/moha.ini)
You will notice the sections broken up and each section is designated by the name in brackets [ and ]. These are the controls added by the devs.
Its pitiful when you compare the two. Either Epic didnt supply this info or controls to EA, or the devs didnt have a clue.
WHAT NEEDS FIXED IMMEDIATELY
1. Remove the need to use the My Documents folder for installs:
GSP's cannot or will not mass install this way. This is a total idiotic thing to do.
2. Optimize/recode the CPU usage:
This is a must do as well. Once the player connects, his CPU is already being hammered with the new required Punbuster services PnkBstrA and PnkBstrB.
I can sit in DV and my CPU is 93-95% on an empty server.
Unexceptable by any means.
Once play begins, and PB scans and screenies, it can get real bad real quick.
3. Server Admin Tools:
This is pretty obvious, the need to minimize the screen or quit and login to that thing EA calls an admin remote is just rediculous.
The standard UT interface needs to be the minmum, but preferably in game Player Admins, or even better, BOTH!
4. Assignable IP's:
This should prob be #2 really.
GSP's have IP's that they paid for and are permanently assigned to that particular box. They can't be used elsewhere.
Good GSP's have Resource Allocation tools on their boxes to optimize the CPU's and memory by IP, thats a normal function.
I don't know of many GSP's that are happy with this setup, who the hell wants tons of data running thru the route IP of their box? Thats insane!!
On top of that, clans with servers like to make website tools and such, like server viewers etc. GSP's aren't going to like that either.
5.Player Slots:
This needs fixed. 16 max and a scoreboard that only goes to 12. The magic number here is 24.
16 is pretty small as is 24. 12 is just laffable.
6. Server Logs:
Am i missing sumthing, i cannot find a server log for this game.
I have never ever seen a game that did not generate a logfile.
Theres more that needs fixed of course, but this gives an idea of whats needed asap for this game.